Archbishop Coleridge in Paul VI Hall. Photo by Fiona Basile.

A few of my blog posts were brought up in this interview with Noel Debien – from ABC Radio in Australia. We were able to speak about many Synod moments in the 30-minute interview. I enjoyed speaking with Noel before the final Mass of the Synod.

I told Noel: “There has been a genuine step forward on a long and complex journey to try to deal with people in a way the respects the truth … but at the same time accompany people. Don’t just hurl doctrine in their general direction. If there was any word that came to dominate the language of the Synod, it was accompaniment. In other words, you have to walk with people.

“Church teaching has not been touched at its heart, and it won’t be, but that doesn’t mean to say it’s all or nothing. It’s exploring that difficult but crucial middle ground where we can walk together. We mightn’t agree but we can agree that we’re human and we can agree that we’ll walk together, we’ll listen to each other, we might even learn from each other.”